bathing ball pythons and other Q's

[NYbirdEater]

I've had my female ball python for over a year and she's very healthy. I haven't bathed her, but I keep a large tupperware in her enclosure and changed the water frequently. I also add some ice cubes in it for her when it gets hot out and she seems to like it.

I feed her once a week, and she is over 2 feet long now. I either give her 2 large mice every week, or 1 large mouse and one small rat. Last week the pet store was fresh out of the usual and I fed her a decent sized rat and she had no problems swallowing it. Because it was larger than her usual feeding I won't feed her for another 2 weeks.

If yours is 3 feet long I would suggest feeding it medium-large sized rats once a week. You can give the rats "rat chow" if you want the snake to get some extra nutrients but I never have and mine is healthy.

She usually doesn't mind being handled but if she hasn't digested or doesn't feel like being held she gives me a nice loud hiss and I leave her alone for that day. She has never bitten me once. I keep her on crushed walnut shells and never have mites or other pests as long as I get rid of her furry crap

I do feed her in a separate tank to ensure she doesn't lunge at my hand when I clean her tank or go to pick her up and so far it's worked great. As soon as I put her in her feeding tank she knows it's dinner time. After several months of feeding her like this she also figured out that grabbing the mice/rat by it's face, it can't hurt her, and now she is a dead bang at grabbing and constricting and very rarely does she even get a scratch from feeding.

 

[NYbirdEater]

What planet are you from lol? I've kept more Ball Pythons that you've probably ever seen and I can attest that a baby Ball Python is MUCH more likely to bite than a Corn Snake of ANY age is. And if a snake keeper, beginner or not can't take a bite from a a baby Corn Snake, they should stick to sea monkeys.

Both snakes can bite, they have mouths But I do agree with DB. There's always a risk and a bite from a baby corn shouldn't even bother my grandmother. 1 good way to judge a snake, as I was told before I got my ball, was to get them from a reptile show or from a local breeder if you have one. You can inspect the snake, make sure it doesn't have mouth rot, and get an idea of it's temperment. It worked for me and my little bitch is growing nicely and never bites, unless there's a rodent around and then she doesn't play any games. Several times she sliced open the face of her prey from the strike.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry. A friend of mine has a 4 foot ball who nailed him on the shoulder once. He said it hurt initially but ater that he was fine. Plus, he hadn't held her in months and stopped feeding her regularly so it's his own fault. After that he tossed her against the wall (which I definitely DO NOT suggest anyone do if their snake bites them) but she got the point and hasn't bitten him since.

If you were getting a cobra I'd say be careful but these snakes can only give you minor bite wounds at best.

 

[Beardo]

I do feed her in a separate tank to ensure she doesn't lunge at my hand when I clean her tank or go to pick her up and so far it's worked great. As soon as I put her in her feeding tank she knows it's dinner time. After several months of feeding her like this she also figured out that grabbing the mice/rat by it's face, it can't hurt her, and now she is a dead bang at grabbing and constricting and very rarely does she even get a scratch from feeding.

The myth that feeding a snake in a seperate enclosure will keep it from biting you is completely false. Snakes only bite because they feel threatened or if you smell like food. There are snakes that will tag you no matter where you fed them, and there are snakes that won't bite even if you rub a rat on your hand before picking them up lol.

I also gather from the above quote that you feed your snake live prey since it "rarely gets scrathes from feeding"......if your snake is getting "scratched up" why not do the smart thing and switch to dead prey items? A live rodent can seriously injure or even kill a snake....I've witnessed both with my own eyes.

A friend of mine has a 4 foot ball who nailed him on the shoulder once. He said it hurt initially but ater that he was fine. Plus, he hadn't held her in months and stopped feeding her regularly so it's his own fault. After that he tossed her against the wall (which I definitely DO NOT suggest anyone do if their snake bites them) but she got the point and hasn't bitten him since.

What a friggin douchebag. Perhaps if somebody only fed him when they felt like it and then threw him against a wall, he'd want to bite them also. Some people have no business owning live animals. The snake didn't "get the point"...snakes don't "learn" like mammals and other higher evolved animals do. If you "discipline" a snake, it will still bite you...probably harder than the last time.

 

[NYbirdEater]

That's whY i don't don't rub rats on my hands. And from what I've seen it works better and my snake never has a chance to swallow substrate.

It doesn't get all scratched up, only once or twice it was caught by a claw, and that was before it started striking for the heads. I don't like feeding my animals dead prey. IMO I might as well keep what little reality there is in it's natural habitat in it's enclosure.

I do agree with the last part. As I said I don't condone that. But I can see you sweat your snakes like some ripe ass so I won't even bother agreeing with you anymore. Opoinionated <edit -MrI> don't impress me, unless I get to punch them repeatedly in person.

 

[Beardo]

I don't like feeding my animals dead prey. IMO I might as well keep what little reality there is in it's natural habitat in it's enclosure.

I hear this argument all the time from people who are pro-feeding live rodents. It simply doesn't make sense.....you'll keep your snakes in a cage, give it water and food on a regular basis, provide it with supplemental heat and humidity, but you won't do the one major thing that could prevent serious injury or death to your snake? You probably just get off on watching your snake kill rodents. Dead prey can't injure your snake...but then again it isn't all that "cool" either.

But I can see you sweat your snakes like some ripe ass so I won't even bother agreeing with you anymore. Opoinionated <edit -MrI> don't impress me, unless I get to punch them repeatedly in person.

Yes, you are correct....I do "sweat" my snakes. I guess actually caring about and providing a safe environment for your animals constitutes "sweating" them. In that case, I certainly won't take offense to your snide little remark. Ignorant snake-abusing <edit -MrI> don't impress me either....and neither do keyboard tough guys.

 

[NYbirdEater]

now I remember why I haven't been here in months. Back to the scorp forums.You can find me at the reptile shows, skeeter.

 

[Bry]

A 5ft. Ball? Ok, we have some real "experts" here don't we.

Says you!

A good maintance schedule for an adult ball is 1 large mouse or small rat per week. Females will grow larger than males, but RARELY will they approach the 5' mark.


Ball pythons naturally have small heads and heavy bodies. They are not designed to take large prey. It is unhealthy and poor judgement on the owners part to feed animals larger than the maximum girth of the animal in question.

large mouse/small rat per week? Not designed to take large prey? What in the <edit -MrI>? My male ball python eats a med/lg rat every 2 weeks and you don't even notice any kind of lump in him, nor does he have any problem getting that rat through his little head. And he has one of the best feeding responses of all my snakes, nor has he ever regurged...which IS a sign of feeding prey that is too large.

That is another ignorant comment. Baby corn snakes are snappy - baby Balls are not.

No, THAT is an ignorant comment. Dude, you need to just stick to talking about inverts, because you don't know diddly-<edit -MrI> about snakes. I have been bitten by and seen others get bitten by ball pythons. I have seen a couple ball pythons that just hated everything, and repeatedly struck at everything that moved. Yes, aggressive ball pythons are not the norm, but they are more common than an aggressive corn. I have NEVER EVER seen a single aggressive or nippy corn, out of hundreds or even thousands of corns I've seen. That's not to say they are not out there, they are...but they are VERY few and far between. I could probably blindfold myself and pick up one of my corns with my teeth and not even get a new set of teeth in my face.

This little corn obviously has every intent to maul the <edit -MrI> out of me. Perhaps we should impose a breed-specific ban on corns. How's 'bout it?

 

[ilovebugs]

hehe,
wow.

for some reason the email comments stopped comming for a couple days.

keep your heads on everyone, I just need your brains, not your attitudes. Everyone has different opinions about caring for anything that requires care.
"there is more than one way to skin a cat" as they say.

I apreciate all the help, and it's good to speak up when someone is blatently wrong. I'm not stupid, so don't worry about me taking in too much bad advice, I'm knowlegable enough to decifer a few things on my own.

 

[dirtborder4life]

Huh?

Umm...what?My ball is 10 months old,37 inches long,and when i place my order from rodentpro in a week,will be eating 1 small rat a week(has been on mice,switching to rats).A 2 foot yearling sounds very small to me??And a 3foot 6 year old? :wall: The previous owner better hope i never meet them :evil: